Glimpses of summer

We have been having so much fun these past few months, that I haven’t taken one second to keep things updated here on the blog. So, here are a few glimpses of our summer…

sweet summer time9 mos (Faith gave her a new look for the day. Everytime she crawled, they’d shift all over her head!)

In our early, hottest days, the kids filled a trough with water and played in it with much excitement. Karolina turned 9 months at the end of July. With that came the mastery of sippy cups and CLIMBING on everything. She also started taking her first steps. It was more like: turn-then lunge forward-and-hope-legs-keep-up, in the beginning. ;)

’47-’48 Plymouth

Our elderly neighbor lady was getting ready to move to Arizona and gifted us this oldie but goodie!! Lowell didn’t plan on doing anything with it at first, but he found a way to put it to good use in some bartering on craigslist! We enjoyed some fun photo op’s with it while it spent a few months on the land.

road trip!

In early August, we made a road trip to San Jose for a wedding and informal family reunion. Lowell’s uncle, Paul, got married and all of Grandma Ruth’s kids were in town for the big event. There was lots of picture taking (not by me! lol) and lots of fun to be had those 5 days we were there.

Grandma Ruth with all 9 of her kids

We stayed with Lucy up at the farm, so I helped her with the rehearsal dinner that was hosted by Grandma up there. I got to do lots of visiting with all my favorite people at the rehearsal, the wedding, and the BBQ we had one of those evenings.

My Top 5 highlights of this visit:

1) Getting to see Lowell’s dad for the first time since Christmas. It was a pretty crazy time, but I enjoyed all our chats when our paths crossed;
2) Seeing Uncle Joe & Aunt Roxane. That was like a super highlight of the trip!! I haven’t seen them since 2012, so all the moments I got to soak in some time with them was so wonderful;
3) All the great chats I had with Elise, Lucy, Bridget, Mary, Aunt Mary and Aunt Aimee;
4) Sharing a smoke with Uncle Joe on the patio at the end of the wedding reception;
5) Uncle Paul’s wedding. So beautiful. So fun. So much happiness.

“Seesters” Faith 7, Felicity 6, Karolina 9 mos

We were at lunch one afternoon after Mass and the above moment presented the perfect shot. I love my pretty little ladies <3

10 mos sassy

Karolina turned 10 months last week and is quite a little sassafras! After her lunge into walking at 9 mos, she has gotten more stable and will take 5-6 steps without a hitch now. She can say “Momma,” “baby,” “Jesus,” and “ball” She can point and shake her head ‘no’ too. She is a good eater, but is the most picky of all our kids. She loves to scrunch her face and make those piggy-type noises through her nose. She will bust a move when she hears any kind of music. And, when you say her name to her with a little bit of tune, she will dance away to that as well! Oh, and she has mastered full on dramatics. When something doesn’t go her way, she will throw her head back, scrunch up her eyes as tight as she can, and will fake a cry with all her might. She is so good at this now that she can squeeze some big ol’ crocodile tears out. Our Karolina Mercy. She is such a lively little character! :)

Our summer has come to an end with school starting a few weeks ago. Don’t worry, it is still summer here in Cali! However, we are back in school just the same. We have a second grader, first grader, and a Pre-K/Kindergartner this year. It is slightly overwhelming having three in now, but I can see it smoothing out as the new schedule settles. I am also prepping both the girls for First Communion. Please say a prayer as we undergo Catechism and discussions of The True Presence as well as understanding the gravity of sin. They know the basics, but now is time for technicalities.

I’d like to close with something I found rather amusing. My first grader was working on her spelling. She was asked to write a sentence to explain how she would tell a friend to get to her house. She chose one of her spelling words, ‘map’, for the task, but became very frustrated that she couldn’t figure out how she wanted to write it. She came to me a few minutes later with this…